More Power of the Daleks

Sunday 11 December 2016

I am most encouraged to learn that I am not the only lady of a certain age who watches Doctor Who of her own volition. None other than Theresa May, Prime Minister (yes, we know who she is) enjoys watching the Doctor Who Christmas Special after she has cooked her goose. I just wish I could get away with wearing leather trousers...

Anyway, we have finished watching Power of the Daleks. There are definitely parallels with Victory of the Daleks - yes, we have Daleks in a servile role, bringing drinks. Why doesn't an enterprising Cardiff restaurant try that?

There are a lot of other familiar elements: lots of running up and down corridors; the Doctor being mistaken for someone in authority (psychic paper would have saved a lot of time; the Doctor being locked up; his companions being kidnapped; a misguided scientist; a rebel force and a scheming security chief. As this is the 1960s, the female companion has little to do apart from be kidnapped, although Polly seems to know quite lot about Daleks considering she hasn't actually met any before. Ben and Polly's initial suspicions of the new incarnation of the Doctor are soon forgotten.

The animation is strange in that the human characters are not particularly well realised, but the Daleks look almost photo-realistic.

Overall I enjoyed it.  Now we are on to the end of the Troughton era with The War Games.

Power of the Daleks - the beginning

Sunday 27 November 2016

On Friday my other half decided that a burgundy coloured Fourth Doctor cosplay coat was the ideal garment to wear:

a) to work (where the Finance Director correctly identified it); and

b) to the AGM and Presidential Lecture of the Royal Historical Society.

After the lecture, I tried to make a swift exit and he asked me if I didn't want to go the reception for a canapé.  "Not in that coat," I replied, "it looks a lot better in the dark." [This was a reference to our first date. We were at the theatre and as the house lights he turned to me and told me that I looked better in the dark. Reader....I married him anyway.]

The upside of this was that we got home in good time to watch The Grand Tour, leaving Saturday night free to make a start on the DVD of Power of the Daleks.

It's rather a strange story.  I'm not sure whether the animation follows the original script exactly, but it seems to be a little disjointed, as if linking action or scenes are missing.  The animation is quite basic, and doesn't seem to have captured the Doctor,  Ben and Polly particularly well.  That said, I am enjoying it, and found episode two creepy enough to be watched from a vantage point to the rear of our soft seating area.  The end of this episode is rather similar to Victory of the Daleks, which I wasn't really expecting.

I'm off now to watch the next thrilling installment.